Sexual Assault Survivorship Discussion

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Active Minds at IIT will host Brendan Yukins from Rape Victim Advocates for a talk about sexual assault survivorship on Wednesday, October 4 at 12:45 p.m. in Tech Central, Conference Room 1C6-1. Yukins is a prevention educator with Rape Victim Advocates. Prior to joining RVA, Brendan was a special education teacher in Chicago Public Schools (Learning Behavioral Specialist I). Yukins’ role at RVA includes developing and implementing curricula on sexual violence for students K-12, college, and adults. He provides professional trainings to community partners, faith leaders, higher education administrators, and new volunteers to RVA. Yukins is proud to co-facilitate psychoeducational groups for male survivors of sexual trauma. He passionately wants to end the stigma around male victimization, and hopes to create a world where male-identified survivors can get the help they need. He will be speaking on sexual trauma’s effect on the brain. Although we are familiar with the shame and blame society places of victims, many of us are unaware of the neurobiological toll it has on a survivor. By examining our brain’s response, we are better able to understand symptoms of sexual trauma and better respond to those who share with us that they were sexually assaulted.